Dead Pool 24th August 2025

A fairly quiet week, no points to award but a couple of interesting stories to read.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Terence Stamp, 87, English actor (Superman II, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert).
Frank Caprio, 88, American judge and television personality (Parking Wars), pancreatic cancer.
Brent Hinds, 51, American heavy metal musician (Mastodon, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra) and songwriter (“Colony of Birchmen“), traffic collision.
Jerry Adler, 96, American actor (The Sopranos, Rescue Me, The Good Wife).

In Other News

The world’s oldest living person is celebrating turning 116. Ethel Caterham, who lives in a care home in Lightwater, Surrey, became the oldest living person in April following the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canbarro Lucas aged 116. Born on 21st August 1909, she is the last surviving subject of Edward VII. His great-great-grandson Charles III sent Mrs Caterham a card to mark her 115th birthday in 2024. Mrs Caterham was born three years before the Titanic disaster, eight years before the Russian Revolution and lived through two world wars. Born in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, the second youngest of eight children, she was raised in Tidworth in Wiltshire. As a teenager she worked as an au pair in India, and later lived in Hong Kong and Gibraltar with her husband Norman, a lieutenant colonel in the army. A statement released by her care home said: “Ethel and her family are so grateful for all of the kind messages and interest shown to her as she celebrates her 116th birthday this year. “Ethel will spend the day quietly with her family so that she can enjoy it at her own pace. Thank you again for your kind wishes on this special day. “The oldest person who ever lived, whose age could be verified, was Frenchwoman Jean Louise Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.

A bizarre video of Kirstie Alley revealing the wild outfits her parents were wearing during a fatal car crash has gone viral. The clip of the late star resurfaced this week on Twitter, as she discussed the tragic incident that saw a drunk driver kill her mother and seriously injure her father during a collision in 1981. The couple had been on their way to a Halloween party at the time and viewers were left stunned when Kirstie revealed their outfits of choice. The clip was uploaded alongside a caption that read: ‘I could give you 1,000 tries to guess and you wouldn’t get it right.’ In the clip, Kirstie can be seen mid interview with Barbara Walters as she discusses arriving at the hospital following the tragic crash. ‘We were all sitting in this waiting room and we were sobbing and as I’m crying my sister was there and I wasn’t looking at her but I said, “Where were they going?” ‘And she said, “To a Halloween party.” “And I said: ‘What were they dressed as?’ — why would you ask this! — and she said: ‘The Odd Couple,’” Kirstie continues, referencing a 1968 movie. “And I said: ‘Oh,’ and I’m thinking: What Odd Couple? Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon?” “‘Well, what were their costumes exactly?’ and she said: ‘Mom was a Black girl and Dad was a Ku Klux Klan member,”’ The famed actress chuckled and put her hands to her head as she continued: ‘We started laughing and the whole family I guess had heard this conversation and we all started laughing. ‘And it was the greatest tribute that you could give my mother.’ Kirstie previously recalled this story in her 2005 memoir, How to Lose Your Ass and Regain Your Life, where she also added: “I wish sometimes that the woman that killed my mother that night…had known about my mother’s costume, because maybe she, too, would know that my mother was a pretty funny person.”

Thailand’s royal family has shared a rare health update on Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, the eldest child of King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The princess, known as “Princess Bha,” 45, has been hospitalised in a coma since December 2022 after collapsing as a result of a heart condition. n a statement released last week, the Thai royal family revealed the princess’s medical team at the Chulalongkorn Red Cross Hospital in Bangkok detected a severe infection in the bloodstream, leading them to administer antibiotics and medication to stimulate blood pressure in order to maintain stable levels. The doctors have reported that the Princess’ lungs and kidneys have been functioning with support from medical devices and medication,” the statement added. The princess’s care regimen includes “broad-spectrum antibiotics and dialysis sessions to replace her deteriorating kidney function.” The Thai royal family has kept the princess’s condition largely private, releasing only four statements in the nearly three years that she has been hospitalised. Princess Bha is the eldest daughter of the King, 71, and his only child by his first wife, Soamsawali Kitiyakara. Prior to falling ill, she earned degrees in law and international relations in both Thailand and the United States, worked for the United Nations and served as Thailand’s ambassador to Austria. The King, known as Rama X, has yet to officially announce a successor. Before her hospitalisation, Princess Bha was considered a frontrunner, even though Thai tradition favours a male heir.

On This Day

1941 – Adolf Hitler orders the cessation of Nazi Germany’s systematic T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the handicapped due to protests, although killings continue for the remainder of the war.
1981 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
1995 – Microsoft releases Windows 95 to the public.
2006 – The International Astronomical Union redefines the term “planet” such that Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.
2016 – Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, is discovered by the European Southern Observatory.

Deaths